The next two weekends the Akron Area Museum will be open to the public from 1 – 4 p.m., each Saturday and Sunday.

Akron Historical Society members, local businesses and community members are as busy as the elves at the North Pole. They are decorating the museum’s home, an early 1900s Victorian mansion located at 601 Main St. in Akron.

This is the first annual Christmas Tour at the museum. It will feature a tour through 20 areas of the museum, showcasing not only a variety of Christmas trees but museum artifacts.

This will also be the Grand Opening of the museum’s “Grand Room,” which was the previous owners’ garage.

The Grand Room features memorabilia of the Akron Savings Bank, which operated in downtown Akron from 1890 to 1983.

Tourists will also notice the tin ceiling, originally found in the Akron Register-Tribune newspaper office, which was in operation from 1886 to June 2005. The ceiling was carefully removed from the newspaper office, painted and installed in the original pattern in the museum’s Grand Room.

Other Grand Room artifacts include Akron Community Hospital, which was in operation from 1951 to 1986; Akron Opera House production posters, and a rug loom. There are also several chandeliers, collected from various sources, found in this room.

Children will love this room as it is where Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus will be waiting to hear their wish lists. Families wanting to just see Santa may do so for free by entering the north patio door entrance, off the driveway.

Those wishing to take the tour will need to enter the West Entrance, which is the main entrance to the mansion. Tour Admission is $3 per person.

After visiting with the Clauses or completing the tour, all may enjoy cookies and cider in the museum’s Community Room.

In addition to the Grand Room and Community Room, museum displays include:

• Military Room, featuring several local veterans’ military histories, uniforms and memorabilia.

• Alumni Room, which includes an assortment of Akron Raiders and Akron-Westfield Westerners artifacts.

The mansion was converted to five apartments in 1930. In the 2000s, Mary and John Lucken purchased it and restored it to a single family home. In 2007, they donated the property to the Akron Historical Society.